Senior Director, Manufacturing – Carpe

Senior Director, Contract Manufacturing

Location:

Durham, NC (In-Office)
Department:
Operations

Reports To:

SVP Operations
Applying

To apply directly to this role, please email  a non-ChatGPT paragraph explaining why you believe you would be the best fit for this role and attach your resume as a PDF. Applying via email is the only way to be considered.

Carpe is the fastest-growing deodorant brand in the United States. Our team is composed of ~25 incredibly smart people working together in person in downtown Durham, NC. Our office is open, collaborative, and high energy. We build products that solve real problems for millions of people who struggle with excessive sweating. Our growth over the past several years has been rapid, and we are continuing to expand across retail, ecommerce, and new product categories.

As the company scales, building a strong, reliable, and scalable manufacturing foundation is critical to our long-term success.

We are seeking a high-ownership manufacturing leader with a strong chemical engineering or process engineering background who thrives in complex, fast-growing environments and enjoys building systems that support scale. This role exists to build and lead Carpe’s contract manufacturing and process engineering capability as the company rapidly expands production across multiple product categories and retail partners. While this role carries meaningful strategic responsibility, it is also deeply operational and hands‑on.

You will work directly with contract manufacturers to strengthen processes, improve manufacturing performance, and ensure Carpe products are produced consistently and reliably s is a build‑and‑own role, not a delegation role. You will engage directly with the technical teams at contract manufacturing partners, travel up to 50% as needed, and work hands‑on to improve processes, troubleshoot manufacturing challenges, and scale production.

You will partner closely with Product Development, Operations, Quality, and Supply Chain to translate product innovation into robust, scalable manufacturing processes. Success in this role requires the ability to operate at multiple levels simultaneously—driving long‑term manufacturing strategy while also working directly with manufacturing partners to solve technical challenges and strengthen operational performance.

• Own and manage Carpe’s network of contract manufacturing partners
• Build strong working relationships with technical teams at manufacturing partners
• Improve operational performance across quality, delivery, and cost
• Lead onboarding and qualification of new manufacturing partners as capacity expands
• Ensure manufacturing partners are prepared to support both current production and future growth
• Serve as the primary operational leader responsible for manufacturing performance across the network

• Build and lead Carpe’s internal manufacturing process engineering capability
• Work directly with contract manufacturing teams to document and refine production processes
• Identify and define critical process parameters that drive product consistency and performance
• Lead process characterization work, including DOE design and execution
• Improve process robustness and repeatability across manufacturing partners
• Troubleshoot complex manufacturing challenges and support manufacturing teams in solving production issues
• Drive continuous improvement initiatives across manufacturing operations

• Lead the technical transfer of new products from development into commercial manufacturing
• Work directly with contract manufacturers to scale formulations and processes successfully
• Partner closely with Product Development to translate product specifications into scalable manufacturing processes
• Oversee pilot trials, validation runs, and commercialization readiness for new product launches
• Ensure new products are successfully and reliably launched across manufacturing partners

• Establish operational metrics and performance tracking across contract manufacturing…